Financial Analyst/Content Writer, RADEX MARKETS
Lawrence J. came from a strong technical and engineering background before pivoting into a more financial role later on in his career. Always interested in international finance, Lawrence is experienced in both traditional markets as well as the emerging crypto markets. He now serves as the financial writer for RADEX MARKETS.
SAHAM
Huge moves in precious metals this morning, but not in the direction investors were hoping for. Yesterday’s session saw gold top out around $5,600 per ounce, before a series of brutal swings shook out large swathes of traders. The price action has been equally aggressive this morning, with gold prices plummeting to $5,200 and leaving markets guessing as to the next direction of travel. Silver, which saw record-breaking highs of $120 per ounce yesterday, is currently being subjected to the same selling pressure as gold, dipping to lows of $108 earlier in the day. Platinum and palladium were both down 6% early this morning, and even humble copper was brought down to more earthly levels after a huge spike on Thursday.
Lacking any conviction whatsoever, cryptocurrencies are happy to use any excuse to sink lower, with Bitcoin exploring the depths of $81,000 this morning and the wider crypto markets faring just as poorly. Bad news for Michael Saylor’s Strategy, which fell almost 10% yesterday, closing the day at 143 per share and matching lows from September 2024. The company has been in free fall for the past six months, losing 70% since last summer. There is some small reason for optimism however, as yesterday the US Senate Agriculture Committee narrowly voted to advance a crypto market structure bill, which essentially represents the other piece of the puzzle in relation to the Clarity Act. The two pieces of legislation will eventually be combined into one unified crypto framework, which is what everyone has been waiting for since the Genius Act passed last year. Encouragingly, this is the first time such a market structure bill has advanced beyond a Senate committee, and while crypto traders are by no means out of the woods just yet, the development is an unexpectedly pleasant one.
Yesterday was a mixed bag for the tech sector, which saw large movements in both directions following several high-profile earnings reports. Despite beating Wall Street estimates, Microsoft (MSFT) shed 10% on Thursday as investors struggled to come to terms with the company’s massive AI-fuelled spending spree, as well as a lack of growth in its Azure cloud business. The drop marks the largest since 2020 and Microsoft now sits at an eight-month low. It was a totally different story for Meta Platforms (META), which rose 10.4% yesterday after a surprisingly strong quarterly revenue outlook, coupled with plans to massively expand its data centre operations this year. Tesla (TSLA) slid 3.5% after the company announced plans to shift away from electric cars, scrapping the model S and model X, pivoting instead towards the manufacturing of humanoid robots. Apple (AAPL) meanwhile revealed a big uptick in revenue thanks to strong iPhone sales, easily surpassing analysts' expectations and causing shares in the company to rise in extended trading last night.
Trading derivatives and leveraged products is high risk and may result in losses exceeding your initial investment. Read our T&C and PDS before trading.
BUKA AKAUN